Lisandro Almirón did not have a minor challenge: the candidate for governor of Corrientes for Libertad Avanza had to submit to the polls in the middle of a corruption scandal of his party nationwide that occupied the media centrality. And for the closure of the campaign he received Karina Milei, while the country spoke of the alleged 3% of coimas that the Secretary General of the Presidency took. All wrong.
But even with the backpack that had to load Almirón, his performance lit an alarm at Casa Rosada: the candidate did not reach 10% of the votes and was fourth. Libertarians have a hard time driving electorally when they leave the AMBA.
Suspected. Nor is it that Almirón arrived at the polls without a macula. Justice investigates a maneuver in which Karina Milei donated merchandise kidnapped by Customs to Amigas Foundations. By law, the general secretary can have the assets retained by the agency, but the controversy of the matter is that “the boss”, as the nickname her brother, did not do it for solidarity purposes, but to favor their own.
Almirón had a good slice. According to the investigation, revealed publicly in May by the “Odyssey Argentine” program, Karina Milei would have donated 14 air conditioners and almost 22 thousand electronic items.
The foundation that received them is “Gea Mother Earth”, chaired by José María Oderda, adopted father of the wife of the former candidate for libertarian governor, and of which his sister, Cinthia Almirón is treasurer.
The Gea Foundation is not known any solidarity profile: it organizes courses on socio -economic and business public policies, but does not perform social work. It has little activity in networks and the only defense that outlined after the scandal was to retweate a conspiracy theory of Lilia Lemoine: “What a coincidence! We expose that the Ministry of Hate charges politics and operates to our space and at the touch the operettas against Sapucay Almirón begin,” the deputy wrote then. No one was encouraged to give explanations about the matter, published in the Official Gazette.
Almirón either sap from family scandals. A month before the election, a cousin of his told in local media that the current deputy had falsified his grandmother’s signature, one day before he died, to keep his home. Almirón, in complicity with his brothers and a scribe friend, would have falsified public documents to seize the property, according to his relative.
According to the experts who intervened in the case, the signing of the document did not coincide with that of its identity card. “It’s a gross imitation,” they said. The incident would have occurred in 2013 and the file still processed in the Courts of Corrientes. When Almirón assumed as a national deputy, the cause already advanced in justice.
Future. Despite the hard defeat, Almirón has an asset in La Libertad advances: he enjoys Karina’s full confidence. His problem is that the banking in deputies expires this December and to conserve their place, the libertarians chose a candidate with their own weight: the Vedette Virginia Gallardo.
“Sapucay” closed the campaign with Karina, in a caravan that ended violently, when some protesters went to the general secretary, in the middle of the coimas scandal. “People with banners were mobilized to vandalize the act,” Almirón protested on election day, pointing to the provincial government. “We had many peaceful manifestations in Corrientes, we never had problems,” governor Gustavo Valdés replied. His brother, Juan Pablo, won the choice and will happen in office (see box).
Almirón will have to travel the plain until he can accommodate politically. He showed the Milei loyalty, something that is well valued by the brothers. In March he grabbed Piñas with Oscar Zago, once libertarian, in the middle of deputies to give rise to Martín Menem to raise a session that came complicated. He showed them that he was willing to do everything.
To accommodate what comes would not be a capital problem either. Son of a recognized provincial leader, the Almirón family was surfing between alliances with radicals, Peronists and macristas, according to what the political moment asked. If the future is not libertarian, “Sapucay” will be ready to emigrate.
After the electoral defeat on Sunday 31, Almirón did not face. In fact, he silent for several days. Just reappear through a tweet on Wednesday 3 to recognize the result. “Although it was not what we expected, we value the experience and commitment of our team and those who supported us,” he wrote.
